After Months in Detention… Houthis Release 5 People Arrested for Celebrating the September 26 Revolution in Ibb

Yemen Monitor / Ibb / Exclusive:

The Houthi group released five citizens on Friday who had been detained for celebrating the anniversary of the September 26 Revolution, after spending three months in prisons in Ibb governorate, central Yemen.

Human rights sources told Yemen Monitor that the Houthis released the citizens Fahd Baddah, Mohammed Yahya Al-Kabbari, Issa Bra’at, Abdulsalam Al-Junaid, and Mohammed Al-Manahi after they spent nearly three months in harsh prison conditions.

In September, the Houthis carried out a wide campaign of arrests against citizens in Ibb—the largest among all governorates—over celebrations of the September 26 Revolution. Those detained included children and elderly people.

Last week, journalist Issam Lutfi appeared in a recorded video after being released from Houthi detention, where he had been held for two months along with hundreds of residents from Ibb. He spoke about harsh prison conditions and the large number of detainees arrested during the September 26 anniversary, sarcastically describing what he saw as competition among Houthi security leaders in Ibb to arrest as many people as possible without distinction.

Meanwhile, dozens of citizens remain detained in Houthi prisons, including 99 forcibly disappeared, according to the Nobles Organization for Rights and Development—most of them teachers and academics.